


Moments

by mishasbabyminion



Series: Coming Home to You verse [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Daddy!Killian, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 16:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8063122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mishasbabyminion/pseuds/mishasbabyminion
Summary: He's not Henry's biological father, but he is his Dada in every way that counts.Moments with Henry and Killian in the Coming Home to You verse





	

**Author's Note:**

> Got this idea because I have been craving some daddy!Killian feels.  
> For those of you who happen to wonder about pronunciation (I tend to when I read fic), I'm pronouncing Dada as da-duh.  
> Chapter Track: Jolene by Dolly Parton .... Also, I suggest you look up Miley Cyrus's backyard sessions version of this. It's pretty darn good.

**May; 2 years old**

“Dada?” Henry’s muffled voice came from behind him, along with the feeling of his shirt being pulled by a small hand. “What’cha doin’?”

Killian was sitting at their kitchen table, browsing through real estate ads and bookmarking the ones that he thought that Emma would like. They had been looking for a small house, preferably with space for Henry and Texas to run around outside, for a few months now. They were starting to feel how cramped their apartment was with the two of them, Henry, and Texas all trying to take up the same space. It just wasn’t working for their little family any more.

He turned around and pulled Henry into his lap; the two year old had his thumb in his mouth now, but was still smiling broadly.

“Well, son,” Killian said, “I’m looking at pictures of houses and trying to see which ones Mama would like best.”

“Why you lookin’ at houses, Dada? We has a house now!” Henry pulled his thumb out of his mouth for the few moments it took to speak, and then forced it back between his lips. “Does Tekas need a house, too?”

Killian laughed and pulled Henry closer into his chest. He dropped a kiss to his son’s forehead and thanked his lucky stars that he was able to have this life.

“Not just Texas, buddy,” he said with another laugh. “Mama and I are looking for a bigger house so that we have more room. Maybe a big backyard for you to play with Texas in, if you would want that.”

“Dada?”

“Yes, buddy?”

“Can I has a swing?”

“We’ll see what we can do, bud. I promise.”

**July; 2 years old**

It was six in the morning, the morning after they had moved into their new house, when Henry crawled into bed with Killian and Emma and started whispering for Killian to get up.

“Dada,” he said with a sense of urgency. “Dada, you have to get up now.”

Killian cracked open an eye and glanced at his alarm clock, thankful that Emma had thought to close the curtains before they had gone to bed the night before – the sunlight was hidden behind their blackout curtains, and he could convince himself that it was too early to be up just yet.

“Too early, buddy,” he said as he closed his eye and buried his face in his pillow.

“Dada, you _gotta_ to get up,” Henry said, poking his dad in the nose. “Up, up, up!”

Killian groaned and chanced a glance over at his sleeping girlfriend. She was smiling, her eyes still closed, and it was clear to Killian that Henry had woken her up as well when he had crawled into their bed. With a sigh, he sat up and pulled Henry in for their morning cuddles.

“What’s up, little man?” he asked softly, trying to keep up with Emma’s ruse of being asleep. If one of them got to go back to sleep, it might as well be her.

“I pooped in the potty, Dada!” Henry was clearly excited; he started bouncing up and down in Killian’s lap.

“Did you, now? That’s fantastic, bud!” Killian grinned and placed a sloppy kiss to Henry’s cheek before stopping and thinking for a moment. “Henry, how did you reach the sink after you went potty?”

Emma snickered, finally ending her ruse and sitting up with her little family. Henry reached up and grabbed Killian’s cheeks, making her laugh harder.

“I need your help, Dada,” he said honestly. “I pooped and came so you could wipe my butt and help me wash up!”

Emma was full on chortling at this point, and Killian was looking at Henry with a mixture of disbelief and disgust. Emma pulled her son from her boyfriend’s lap, careful not to touch his bottom (which Killian had just noticed was completely bare) or his hands.

“Come on, little man,” she said with a grin. “Let’s go get you cleaned up while Dada gets a shower and throws his jammies in the laundry, okay?”

“Okay, Mama,” Henry said with a grin, waving at Killian.

Killian sighed and pulled himself up and into their en suite bathroom. “It’s a good thing I love that lad,” he muttered.

**January; 3 years old**

Killian was settled on their overstuffed couch with a tired Henry laying across his lap, Texas gnawing on a bone at his feet, and Emma beside him studying over the files for a new case. It had been a long shift at the fire station, and all he wanted to do was curl up with his family and relax before he went in for his next twenty four hour shift.

He was softly reading _The Princess Bride_ , one of Emma’s favorite books, while stroking Henry’s hair when the question was asked:

“Dada? Are you and Mama married?” Henry asked, sitting up in Killian’s lap to look him in the eye.

“Why do you ask, lad?” Killian wasn’t trying to be evasive; he just wasn’t sure what had prompted this question, especially since they were in the middle of the Fire Swamp scene.

“Well, you and Mama love each other so you’re married, right?”

Killian looked at Emma for support; they hadn’t talked about marriage lately, content with their relationship how it was for the time being, and they weren’t expecting questions from Henry while he was this young. Emma shrugged, silently communicating to him to do as he wished with explaining.

“Well, buddy,” Killian started hesitantly, “no, Mama and I aren’t married.”

His little eyebrows furrowed in such an imitation of Killian that Emma had to stifle a laugh. They may not be biological father and son, but they sure copied each other’s mannerisms.

“Don’t you and Mama love each other?” Tears welled up in Henry’s eyes. “Don’t you love me?”

“Oh, lad, that’s not it at all,” Killian soothed, shifting so that he and Henry were looking each other in the eyes. “Mama and I love each other, and you, very much.”

“Then why?”

“Why what, lad?”

“Why aren’t you and Mama married?”

Killian struggled to find an answer for the perfect, curious little boy on his lap, turning to Emma again for help.

“Baby, Dada and I aren’t married yet because neither of us was ready when you were born,” she explained. “We wanted to love you more than anything else, so we loved you.”

“ _Will_ you get married?” Henry urged, turning slightly in Killian’s arms to look at his mother.

“Well, buddy, that all depends on if your Dada asks me.”

Henry turned back to Killian with a very serious look on his face. “Dada. You gotta ask Mama. Somethin’.”

Killian laughed, placing a kiss to Henry’s forehead and whispered, “I promise.”

**April; 3 years old**

“Where we goin’, Dada?” Henry asked from atop Killian’s shoulders.

“Do you remember when you asked if Mama and I were married?” Killian secured his grasp on his son’s ankles; in response, Henry tightened his fingers in Killian’s hair, making the man wince.

“Uh huh. Are you gonna marry Mama _now_ , Dada?” Henry bounced a little on Killian’s shoulders, showing his excitement.

“No, lad. Not right now.”

“Oh,” Henry said sadly. “Okay, Dada.”

“Now, Henry, I wasn’t meaning that I wasn’t going to ask Mama to marry me,” Killian said with a grin on his lips, maneuvering them around the crowded mall. “First, we have to go on a bit of a quest, lad.”

“What’s that, Dada?”

“A quest? Why, it’s an adventure, of course!”

“What _kinda_ ‘venture, Dada?” his question brought the excitement back, and Killian winced at the pressure the boy was putting on his shoulders.

“We’re looking for a ring, my boy,” Killian said as he reached up, pulled Henry from his shoulders, and set him on the ground in front of him. “And here is the realm we’re going to do it in.”

“What’s a realm?”

“A mysterious place, usually different from the world you’re currently living in.”

“Kinda realm’s this, Dada?” Henry looked up at Killian with big, innocent eyes. “We gonna find Mama’s ring here?”

“This, Henry, is a jewelry store, and yes, we can find the perfect ring for your Mama here.”

There was an untold amount of glee in the little boy’s eyes as he looked from his father to the store and back again. He grabbed onto Killian’s left hand and started to pull.

“Let’s go!” he exclaimed with a grin. “We’re gonna find Mama the bestest ring ever!”

**November; 4 years old**

“Love?” Killian asked softly, breaking the calm of the morning around them. “I know that you’re awake, Emma.”

“Let me sleep,” she groaned, burying her face back into her pillow. “Too early for talking yet.”

“Our boy is going to differ in about-” Killian glanced at the alarm clock sitting on Emma’s bedside table “- fifteen minutes, and I need to ask you something before he does.”

Emma sighed and sat up, turning on the lamp that sat on her bedside table, and turned to face Killian. The emerald in her ring caught the light, and Killian couldn’t help but smile as he thought of what a great time he and Henry had ring shopping all those months ago. They would have to have another “quest” soon. Maybe a trip, just the two of them, into town to the toy store today. To pick out something new to go in Henry’s pirate themed bedroom. A special birthday surprise.

 _Yes,_ Killian thought, _that is the perfect quest._

“You have my attention,” Emma said with a slight frown. “What’s going on, Killian?”

“I want to formally adopt Henry,” he said softly. “Now that we’re taking this next step to becoming a real family, I want Henry to be my son in every possible way. I want to actually _be_ his father.”

“You’re not my Dada?” the small, hurt voice came from their cracked doorway; Texas must have come in and out of their room last night, knocking the door open in his wake.

Killian’s eyes shot to the little boy standing just barely in their bedroom, hair adorably mussed from sleep and still clad in his little pirate pajamas. There were tears forming in his eyes, and his bottom lip was quivering.

“Oh, Henry,” Emma said softly. “Come here, baby.”

She opened her arms wide and Henry ran forward to her, climbing awkwardly onto the bed. Emma tried to position him so that he was in between his parents, but Henry stayed firmly in her lap, which broke Killian’s heart.

“Henry,” he started, reaching out for his boy. Henry shook his head and curled into Emma more, the tears starting to fall down his face. Killian pulled his hand back and set it in his lap, a look of defeat crossing his face.

“Henry, we need to be nice to Dada,” Emma urged, nudging her son forward a bit.

“No!” Henry shrieked, wrapping his arms around his mother’s neck tightly. “He said he wasn’t Dada! _I want my Dada!_ ”

Killian felt his broken heart crumble, and regretted the fact that they never told Henry about Neal. Regretted the fact that he had been posing as Henry’s biological father since the day he was born. Regretted the fact that Henry found out that Killian wasn’t his real father on his birthday.

“Henry.” Emma said sternly. “I need you to listen, please.”

“I want Dada,” Henry sobbed.

Killian reached out for his son, hoping that he wouldn’t be rejected and would be allowed to explain himself to his four year old.

“Henry, I _am_ your Dada,” Killian said, trying to figure out the best way to explain Neal’s death to his son. “Just not biologically.”

“What’s b’logically mean, Mama?” Henry asked, still refusing to look at Killian.

“It means that you have the same blood,” Emma explained. “I have the same blood as you, but Dada doesn’t because your blood daddy was hurt badly way before you were born. He made Dada promise that he would take care of you and me, baby.”

“Where’s my blood Dada now?”

“Oh, baby,” Emma said, burying her face in Henry’s unruly hair. “He died. A long, long time ago.”

Henry sniffled, snot running down his face, before finally looking up at Killian. “Why is _he_ my Dada now?”

Killian looked down at his lap, not recognizing the scathing tone in which his four year old said the word “he”. Here he was, trying to make it so that he could legally be a father to his son, and his son was looking at him like he had taken away the sun, the moon, and the stars. Killian had done everything he could to be a good father to Henry; he had changed more diapers than he could count, worked countless shifts at the fire station so that he could start putting money into a college fund for him, stayed up during bad thunderstorms holding onto his son because Henry was terrified of lightning… all of it he had done out of pure love and devotion, and now he couldn’t even get his son to come near him.

“Because I love you with all of my heart and soul,” Killian said softly. He looked up into Emma’s eyes and saw the pain that was there. It only worsened the guilt that he felt at ruining his son’s… Emma’s son’s birthday. He peeled the blankets from his lap, thankful that it was chilly the night before and he had chosen to wear sleep pants instead of just his underpants. “I’m going to go take care of Tex, love.” Defeated, Killian pulled himself from the bed and left the room, not chancing a backwards glance.

Emma sighed and turned back to her son after watching her fiancé leave the room. There were tear tracks on his chubby cheeks and snot caked under his nose, something she very rarely saw in her son.

“Henry, I need you to listen very closely to what I have to say, okay?” She waited until he nodded before continuing. “Dada loves you more than anything in the world. It doesn’t matter that he isn’t your blood daddy, because Dada would do anything for you. He asked me this morning if he could adopt you, baby, because _that’s_ how much he loves you and wants to be your Dada.”

“What does ‘dopt mean, Mama?” Henry asked softly.

“It means that he wants to be your Dada in every way possible,” she tried to explain. “It means that we would go to a place called a courthouse and sign a bunch of papers that would make you and Dada _legally_ related. And before you ask, legally means that these people in the courthouse will look at this piece of paper and go ‘oh look, Killian Jones is Henry’s Dada because that’s how much he loves him’. Do you understand now, baby?”

Henry nodded again, pausing to consider what he was going to say. “Mama, did Dada leave me because I made him sad?”

“No, baby, Dada didn’t leave. He was just sad so he went out of the room for a little while. Dada doesn’t like for you to see him sad.”

“Should I ‘pologize to Dada?”

“I think you should, buddy,” Emma said with a small smile. “And I think that maybe you should talk to him a little bit about the adoption, okay?”

“Okay, Mama,” Henry said, crawling out of her lap and off of the bed.

Emma watched as he toddled out of the room before she flopped back onto her pillow and rubbed her temples. She was right; it was way too early for this.

**

“Dada?”

Killian heard the almost-whisper from his place in the kitchen. He was seated at their dining room table with a mug of hot chocolate wrapped up in his hands, his head hanging.

“Yes, Henry?”

“I’m sorry I got mad, Dada,” Henry said. He walked over to the chair next to Killian and sat down, swinging his feet since they didn’t touch the ground. “Do you forgive me?”

“Oh, buddy, there’s nothing to forgive,” Killian said, looking up at his son with tired, sad eyes. “If anything, it is I who should be asking your forgiveness.”

“Why, Dada?”

“Because I kept this a secret for so long and you didn’t know about your blood daddy. Because I made you upset on your birthday.”

“Dada?”

“Yes, Henry?”

“I love you.”

Killian smiled and looked straight into his son’s eyes before speaking. “I love you more than life itself, Henry.”

“Is that why you want to ‘dopt me?”

Killian scooted his chair backwards and opened up his arms for his son to crawl into. It eased the pain in his chest to see that there was no hesitation before Henry did just that; maybe things were going to be okay after all. He hugged his son tight to his chest for a few moments before speaking again.

“Henry, I want to adopt you because I love you, just like I want to marry Mama because I love her. I want you to be Henry Jones, just like Mama will be Emma Jones after we get married. I want to be able to tell everyone that you’re my son, and I want you to be able to tell everyone that I’m your Dada. I want the best for you, Henry Neal Swan, and that’s why I want to adopt you.”

“Dada?”

“Yes, buddy?”

“I think I want you to ‘dopt me, too,” he said with conviction, looking directly into Killian’s eyes.

He couldn’t help it; Killian felt the tears well up and he couldn’t stop them from falling down his face. “Henry, you just made me the happiest Dada in the whole world.”

Henry wrapped his tiny arms around Killian’s middle and held on tightly. “Thank you for loving me, Dada,” he said.

“And thank you for loving me, son.”

**February; 4 years old**

“ _Shhh_ ,” Killian urged Henry as they sneaked out to the kitchen. “We don’t want to wake Mama up, now do we?”

“No, Dada,” Henry said obediently. “Wanna give Mama a surprise!”

“That’s right, lad! We’re going to make Mama breakfast in bed for Valentine’s Day.”

“What’s that again, Dada?”

“Valentine’s Day? It’s a holiday to show someone how much you love them.”

“So we’re gonna show Mama how much we love her with breakfast?” Henry cocked his eyebrow in such a Killian-like fashion that Killian had to pause for a moment and just stare. “But Dada, you only make cereal for breakfast.”

Killian stared at his son in disbelief. “Just because that’s what I give _you_ before school every day doesn’t mean that I can’t cook anything else.”

“Sure, Dada,” Henry said, shaking his head for a moment. “Do we have anything else for Mama?”

“We have that really pretty necklace we bought her from our last quest, remember?”

“Oh yeah!”

“So now, let’s get down to business and make Mama a great breakfast, shall we lad?”

**

Emma woke up to the smell of burning and the sound of frantic shushing coming from downstairs. She sighed as she got out of bed, donning her robe as she left the room. She followed the smell and sounds into the kitchen where she found her boys standing at the stove, both in aprons, Henry standing almost as tall as Killian on his stepstool, with a burnt _something_ in the pan in front of them.

“Do I even need to ask?” she said with a shake of her head.

Both of her boys jumped and turned to face her with sheepish looks.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Mama!” Henry said with undisguised glee. “I told Dada just to make cereal, but he didn’t listen to me.”

Emma laughed and walked forward to give her fiancé and son kisses. “Maybe he should have listened to you, buddy, because cereal sounds pretty good right now.”

“Told you, Dada,” Henry said with a sideways glance at Killian.

“That you did, son. That you did.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry not sorry for the very lengthy angsty scene. The muse wants what the muse wants, and the muse has been wanting to write that scene for a while now.


End file.
